Chapter 10 - VICTOR’S SECRET
The second account belonged to Marcus Vale, Blackwood Holdings’ deputy controller.
Victor did not look surprised.
That bothered me immediately.
“You know him,” I said.
“Of course I know him.”
“That isn’t what I meant.”
He looked toward Rachel’s kitchen.
Daniel went quiet.
I knew I was right.
“What are you not telling me?”
Victor rubbed one hand over his mouth.
“Three months ago, our internal audit flagged irregular payments.”
“The same payments?”
“Possibly.”
“Possibly?”
“I didn’t know the scope.”
“Did you know Graham was involved?”
“No.”
“Serena?”
“No.”
“But you knew money was missing.”
“Yes.”
I stared at him.
“You said nothing.”
“I ordered a confidential review.”
“And kept living with Serena.”
“There was no evidence connecting her.”
“You had her company name on payments.”
“Her company does legitimate foundation work.”
I almost laughed.
“You sound like her lawyer.”
His face went cold.
Rachel stepped between us.
“Maybe everybody lowers their voices in my apartment.”
Victor did.
So did I.
That did not make me less furious.
“When Ethan got that bruise last month,” I said, “did you wonder about Serena?”
His expression changed.
There it was.
Another secret.
“You did.”
Victor sat down.
“She told me he fell against the edge of the bathtub.”
“You asked me about the bruise.”
“I wanted to compare explanations.”
“And?”
“They matched.”
“Because I arrived after he was already crying.”
Victor looked away.
My trust shifted again.
He had noticed.
He had questioned.
Then he had chosen the explanation that let his life remain comfortable.
“You should have told me.”
“Yes.”
The word was quiet.
No defense.
That made it worse in a different way.
I had spent the day thinking Victor was another victim of Serena’s deception.
Now I understood that he had helped create the space in which she operated.
Not intentionally.
Not criminally.
But through silence.
Through hesitation.
Through wanting certainty before accepting something frightening.
The same thing people were now doing to me.
Daniel’s phone buzzed.
The forensic team had reviewed Marcus Vale’s account.
The first deposit came from Graham’s consulting company.
The second came from Montigue Event Strategies.
The third came from a shell company registered in Delaware.
Marcus had received $190,000.
Victor’s shoulders tightened.
“Call him.”
Daniel did.
Marcus answered immediately.
He sounded terrified.
“I didn’t steal anything.”
Victor took the phone.
“Then explain the money.”
Marcus began crying.
Not dramatically.
Quietly.
Like a man who had expected this call for months.
“They paid me to approve vendors.”
“Who?”
“Graham.”
“And Serena?”
A long silence.
“Yes.”
Victor closed his eyes.
“Why?”
“To move the invoices past compliance.”
“Four million dollars?”
“I didn’t know it got that high.”
“Where did the money go?”
“I don’t know.”
Then Marcus said something that changed everything.
“But the fraud isn’t why they wanted the nanny gone.”
I stopped breathing.
Victor’s voice went low.
“What is?”
Marcus whispered:
May you like
“She saw something in the nursery they could never explain.”
📖 Marcus finally separated the financial fraud from the attack on me, but his explanation made Ethan’s nursery the center of a much more personal betrayal. 👇
